Cutting down her salon menu by more than half her original offerings, and only focusing on her core treatments – skincare and facials – was a huge risk for Zwar Beauty’s Tenille Dodd. But it is a leap of faith that paid off for the dedicated and passionate salon owner, allowing her business to become the success it is today and giving Tenille the opportunity to hone her craft as one of the best facialists in Port Lincoln, South Australia.
“I think if you have the passion and confidence in what you are doing and selling, your goals and dreams come to you without really having to try.”
Zwar Beauty’s Tenille takes guiding her clients towards better and brighter skin to another level. Beyond performing a simple treatment, from a facial to makeup application, the philosophy at Zwar Beauty is to take a client and treat them with the same care as you would your own skin, and provide them with the proper post-treatment education to ensure they come out feeling confident and comfortable.
“I see too many clients come in who have been using their products incorrectly and it makes me really upset as I know ingredients like Vitamin A, Glycolic, Retinol are powerful and if they are prescribed incorrectly they can cause more damage to the skin than good,” Tenille exclaims.
This is why she places the utmost importance on the skin consultation and follows up with every client that walks through her doors to make sure their prescribed skincare routine is being followed meticulously. Most recently, Tenille experienced amazing success through charging for her comprehensive skin consultations as a service, resulting in high volumes of retail sales from her clients, who have not been able to deny the work they must put in at home as well as in the treatment room.
“A free 15-minute consult is just not enough time to consult correctly, and discuss skin health, advise topical prescription and set up a treatment plan.”
“My clients just want to be guided to make sure they are doing the right thing with their skin,” Tenille mentions. “So, I make sure to message every client that comes in for a facial a few days later to touch base.”
Tenille has stocked Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics for 7 years and it is still one of her most powerful brands. In addition to this, she also stocks Sunescape Tan, Bestow Beauty and Wotnot to back the key performer of her business Image Skincare. “I have been saying to myself ‘where have you been all my skin therapist life’ after introducing Image to my salon!” says Tenille.
“Image Skincare has allowed me to take my clients’ facials to the next step. My clients are noticing a huge difference in their own skin, and I’m feeling huge results on myself. I’m speechless!”
Apart from amazing brands that produce amazing results for her clients, Tenille places her success largely on the customer service she provides as a sole operator. Working on her own, Tenille allows enough time between each client to give them a comfortable, relaxed experience, in addition to enough allowance to focus on the business side of operations too.
“We live in such a stressful world now, that clients just want a treatment that is purely focused on them, and I’ll go above and beyond to give them that,” Tenille explains. “We are the one thing you can’t buy online, so I want to make it memorable for my clients.”
The extremely loyal clients at Zwar Beauty have also flocked to events held by Tenille, including a recent makeup masterclass for Youngblood, focusing on educating clients on wearing makeup that does not undo the results of a facial and is actually good for the skin. This resulted in greater client loyalty and an increase in Youngblood retail sales, with many even coming back to restock their products!
In April, Tenille also ran an extremely successful Facebook competition for her clients, asking ‘Why you would want to win a facial with me’, resulting in not only 3 winners due to high demand, but dozens of other clients taking up the facial deal on offer.
“I work my business from the saying ‘don’t be better, be different’, and I honestly think this is the reason why I have had such a strong rebooking clientele,” Tenille enlightens. “My clients know I love my job, they can see and feel it through their facial treatments. I know there is no other salon nearby that specialises in skin like I do!”
Congratulations again to Zwar Beauty for being our PBS Salon of the Month!
